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i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, I 






i| UNITED STATES HI' AMERICA. | 



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X 



COMREGATIONAUSM. 



REV. MR. STORRS'S DISCOURSE. 



CONGREGATIONALISM: 



ITS 



PRINCIPLES AND INFLUENCES: 



A DISCOURSE DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSO- 
CIATION OF NEW YORK, AT THEIR MEETING 
IN MADISON, AUGUST, 1848. 



BY 



RICHARD S/STORRS, JR., 

PASTOK OF THE CHURCH OF THE PILG-RIMS, BROOKLYN. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE ASSOCIATION. 




NEW YORK: 
BAKER AND SCRIBNER, 

145 NASSAU STREET AND 36 PARK ROW. 

1848. 



^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 

BAKER & SCRIBNER, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District 

of New York. 



C. W. BENEDICT, Printer, 

201 William street, cor. of Frankfort, 



DISCOUBSE. 



MATTHEW 7: 20. 

WHEREFORE BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. 

The Church, like every other organized insti- 
tution, has its outward body and its inward life. 
Its life is the faith and love which characterize its 
members ; their hearty belief of Christian truth, 
and the earnest and active piety appropriate to 
this. Its body is the visible structure of forms 
and laws, within which this life resides, and 
through which it acts and is revealed. 

The life principle, in the Church as elsewhere, 
is in its nature unchanging. It may manifest itself 
in different modes, and may exist in different 
degrees of vigor, at different times and in diverse 
circumstances. But in its nature and essence, it 
is immutable ; the same in this land as in others ; 
the same now, as when the disciples met in the 
upper chamber at Jerusalem, or as when the 
Church was in the moving tents of Abraham and 
of Jacob. But the outward structure which 
guards this life and is its body, may change 
greatly. It has thus changed, again and again. 



It has changed, not alone in respect to the attri- 
butes which strike the sense, the comparative 
simplicity or complexity of its visible arrange- 
ments, the rudeness or the magnificence of its 
apparatus of worship, but more radically than this, 
in respect to the fundamental principles upon 
which it has been constructed, the forming ideas 
which have shaped its constitution. Between the 
system of the Papacy, for example, and the system 
of pure Independency, regarded simply as systems 
of ecclesiastical organization, there is obviously 
an almost measureless interval. As stated in 
theory, and as realized in history, they approach 
each other only as opposites ; and the Cathedral of 
St. Peter's, bearing upon its frescoed walls the 
mightiest trophies of the masters of art, lifting into 
the heavens its decorated columns, and hanging 
above the multitude of awe-struck worshippers 
that vast and arching dome which fitly symbolizes 
an organized catholicity, differs not so widely, 
both as an aggregate and in its details, from the 
unadorned chapel within whose walls is simply 
proclaimed the truth of Christ, as does the system 
of the Gregories from the system of the Brownist. 
And yet each of these, and each of the interme- 
diate systems which lie between them, has been, 
and is, an outward structure for the life of the 
Church. Within each, that life has had at some 
time, it still has in some locality, its seat and 
home ; and all again are theoretically possible, as 
organizations for its residence. 

But while this is true, that the life of Christ's 



household may exist and act under widely dif- 
ferent systems of laws and forms, it is in no sense 
a matter of unimportance in which of them it shall 
be lodged. Rather, there is hardly another ques- 
tion of wider relations, or deeper significance. 
For in the Church, as in the human organism, 
the outward structure has a direct and powerful 
influence on the inward life. The two are con- 
nected, not mechanically and superficially, as the 
scaffolding with the building around which it is 
erected, but vitally and intimately, as the body is 
connected with the soul that animates it. The 
principles, therefore, which are embraced in the 
outward constitution of the Church, and which 
give to that its form and character, must act upon 
and modify the piety which inhabits it. As they 
are catholic or narrow, free or monarchal, so will it 
be in its spirit and type, and so, of course, in the 
extent and the direction of its manifestations. 
There is an influence, even, not always direct and 
palpable but still real, exerted by the principles 
embodied in the government of a church, upon 
the form of doctrine which that church shall hold. 
In their spirit and genius, the two will tend, na- 
turally, toward entire coincidence ; so that even if 
the Romish theology had not become so thorough- 
ly intertwisted, in its elements, with that ecclesi- 
astical system whose head is the Pope, still the 
character of that system, its very hugeness and 
intricacy, would render inevitable a different style 
of theologizing among its adherents, from that 
which obtains in other communions. 



6 



Nor is it merely on account of this its con- 
nexion with the life of the Church, that the 
outward organization becomes important. Inde- 
pendently of this, and regarded simply as a perma- 
nent institution, it has many direct relations of 
the highest interest ; relations to the State, to the 
social community, to the family circle, to the indi- 
vidual mind. There is almost no other institution 
whose principles are so silently present to the 
thoughts of a people ; none with which they are 
brought into such familiar contact, and which, 
therefore, so imperceptibly to themselves rains 
influence upon their souls. There is none, either, 
which gathers about it the same associations; 
which becomes so venerable with a religious 
authority; which bears along, upon the current of 
its history, so many remembrances of a godly an- 
cestry ; which connects itself so closely with 
anticipations of the Future. In the wideness, 
therefore, and the permanence of its influence, this 
stands pre-eminent. The principles that construct 
it will circulate their influences in every direc- 
tion. They will affect the family, and the institu- 
tions of education. They will gradually imbue 
and tinge with their own light, the whole habit of 
thought and feeling in the community. They will 
even aifect directly the government of the State ; 
so that freedom in ecclesiastical arrangements will 
be uniformly accompanied by freedom in civil; 
and consolidation and despotism in the one will 
be almost certain concomitants of despotism in the 
other. From one generation, therefore, to another, 



and through a multitude of channels unsuspected 
at first, the influence of an ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion, or rather of the principles that lie at its root, 
transmits itself and is distributed ; and even after 
it seems to have passed from existence, society is 
often moulded by it, and with wonderful force. 

On all accounts, then, it is important that that 
system which prevails in a community be the 
best attainable ; that it be the best as a system, in 
its constituent elements, as well as the best in its 
adaptation to the particular locality, and the fittest 
for the exertion therein of a beneficent influence. 
The mere philanthropist must wish this, who looks 
upon his fellows with kindly sympathy, and de- 
sires their present welfare and happiness. Much 
more must the Christian wish it, who labors and 
prays for the enduring prosperity of Zion. 

It is because we hold the system of Congre- 
gationalism, as practised in the New England 
churches and essentially reproduced in ours, to 
be just this best system, the best in itself, and the 
best for our community and times ; because we 
hold that its principles are more thoroughly fitted 
than any other to work effectively and widely 
toward good results, not in the Church alone but 
in society at large, that we are gathered here to- 
day from all the quarters of the State, to consider 
the progress it has made within our bounds, to 
review and consult upon its elements and its 
practices, and to advise together for its future ad- 
vancement. The Occasion, therefore, almost ne- 
cessitates the Theme. That our own faith in the 



8 



system, if found well-grounded, may be fortified 
and renewed, especially that our zeal for its diffu- 
sion may be justified to others, I would apply to it, 
to-day, the test of the text. I would try Congre- 
gationalism by its appropriate fruits, and having 
carefully discriminated the principles it incor- 
porates, would show in a degree, and as God may 
give me strength, what are the influences which 
they naturally exert, and what the results to 
which their tendencies point. 

I do not propose, you will observe, to argue at 
all their scriptural authority. It is sufficient for 
the present to assume that they are not anti- 
scriptural ; and that Congregationalism, in its 
organized development, is a permissible, as it has 
been an actual form, for the outward constitu- 
tion of Christ's household. So much as this will 
constitute a basis sufficiently broad for my argu- 
ment to-day ; and so much as this will be readily 
granted, even by those who differ from us most 
widely, except, of course, by the prelatists of Rome, 
and their emulous imitators in the Anglican com- 
munion. With all who deny it we have, in its 
place, our controversy. It is a controversy a Vou- 
trance. As against their arrogant pretensions, we 
reckon it demonstrable that the official parity of 
the Christian ministry, as distinguished from the 
prelacy of certain >Enloxonoi is the demand of the 
Scriptures ; that the Synagogue, and not the Tem- 
ple, was the archetype of the New Testament 
church; and that the Brotherhood of Disciples, 
and not the Episcopate, is, under Christ, the foun- 



9 



tain and repository of ecclesiastical authority. 
Nay — further than this : we believe it may be 
shown, and in its place we are ready to maintain, 
that even the minor elements of the Congrega- 
tional polity are discernible in the New Testa- 
ment, and were embodied by the Apostles, in the 
churches which they established, and that, as 
matter of fact, this system claims rightfully a closer 
affinity than does any other existing with the pri- 
mitive model ; in the language of one of its an- 
cient advocates, " that for the substance of it, it is 
the very same way that was established and prac- 
ticed in the primitive times, according to the insti- 
tution of Jesus Christ." This is our belief. But 
this is not the line of argument to be pursued at 
present. For the occasion, we are ready to admit 
for others, as we assume for ourselves, that the sys- 
tem which we consider stands on precisely the same 
footing with theirs of Scriptural authority. And it 
will be my object to show, that this being the case 
the principles which lie at the basis of the Con- 
gregational polity, by their distinctive influences 
and tendencies, have claim upon our peculiar 
love, and are fitted pre-eminently for universal 
diffusion. 

To ascertain these tendencies, I shall rely, of 
course, on analysis, and on history. The indi- 
cations of either of these, considered alone, might 
be deceptive. But when we combine the two, 
and having scrutinized carefully the principles of 
the system, and traced them as far as we can to 

their natural results, correct or establish our infer- 

2 



10 



ences by recorded occurrences, thus interpreting 
history in the light of analysis, and restraining the 
enthusiasm of reason by the sobriety of facts, we 
reach results that are truly reliable ; we are ena- 
bled to discriminate between those tendencies of 
the system which are really inherent, and those 
effects which are natural, and those merely appa- 
rent or accidental results which may be locally, 
and for a time, connected with it. And such a re- 
sult becomes a test of the system. 

Briefly, then, and in as few words as may suc- 
cinctly express them, What are the principles of 
the Congregational system ? what the influences 
which these principles seem fitted to exert ? and 
what the testimonies of the Past, to their tendency 
and effect ? 

In endeavoring to answer these questions, I 
shall direct your attention, in the first place, to a 
principle which is fundamental in the Congrega- 
tional system, without strictly constituting an 
element in its denominational polity. It is rather 
the basis which underlies that polity, but which 
cannot be dispensed with without destroying its 
integrity. It relates to the general constitution of 
the Church, and mav be stated thus : That any 
society of Christians, in which they associ- 
ate THEMSELVES TOGETHER, AND STATEDLY 31EET, 
FOR THE WORSHIP OF GoD AND THE ADMINISTRA- 
TION of Christian ordinances, constitutes a 
Christian Church, is to be regarded as such, 
and is possessed of all the powers and privi- 
leges incident thereto. 



11 



You will observe carefully the bounds of this prin- 
ciple. It is not held that any persons whatever, 
ostensibly united for the worship of God, are to be 
recognized as a church, without regard to their 
views of the truth, or the sincerity of their purpose ; 
whether they be " Turks, Jews, infidels, and here- 
tics," or true and devoted disciples of Christ; 
whether they be really associated for the worship of 
God and the enjoyment of Christian ordinances, or 
only for the advancement of selfish interests and 
the more facile accomplishment of worldly ends. 
It is not held, that among the true disciples of 
Christ no definite organization is useful or needful 
to the existence of a church ; or that any number of 
believers constitute such a church, who meet at in- 
tervals, and by chance, or who remain in neigh- 
borhood without voluntary union. It is not held, 
even, that one form of government may not be 
better than another ; more symmetrical and felici- 
tous in itself, and more closely conformed to the 
Scriptural principles. But it is held, expressly, 
and most emphatically, in the principle I have 
affirmed of the Congregational system, that any 
permanent association of believers, for the worship 
of God, and the administration of Christian ordi- 
nances, is, and is to be regarded as, a Christian 
Church, whatever may be the peculiarities of its 
regimen, or whatever the methods by which it has 
been constituted. 

And this principle is not only fundamental and 
organific, but it is really distinctive in the Congre- 
gational theory. It discriminates that theory 



12 



broadly and obviously from that of the Prelatist ; 
for the essential characteristic, the very germ and 
life-point of the latter, is the assumption that 
Christ and His Apostles, if not personally, yet by 
The Church which is their successor and represen- 
tative, have imperatively ordained that ecclesiasti- 
cal constitution as the only correct one, in which the 
three orders of the clergy shall perpetually obtain, 
and grace be transmitted through the Episcopal 
succession. Against this theory, therefore, the 
scheme of Congregationalism is set in clear and 
radical contrast, by the principle we are consider- 
ing. 

In a degree, too, it is distinguished by it from 
the systems of those other communions which 
unite with the Congregational in discarding Pre- 
lacy ; for by this the principle is embodied more 
distinctly than by them, and in this, it is more 
central and influential. Upon this point I would 
not be misunderstood. It is certainly true — and 
blessed be God that it is true, for it not only 
shows the energy and largeness of the Christian 
spirit, and how easily where it exists it overleaps 
the barriers of sect, but it shows, also, the tenden- 
cies of the age in which we live, and the inevitable 
progress of freedom and light- — it is certainly true, 
that many disciples organized into churches on 
other platforms than ours, as individuals do hold 
this principle with us, and practically maintain it. 
But it is certainly true, also, that in so doing they 
are in advance of their systems, and that these, as 



13 



systems, have little sympathy with the principle, 
and decline to incorporate it. 

Thus it is, for example, with the Presbyterian. 
In all its details, in most of its principles, this is 
opposed to prelacy ; and, practically, it has fought a 
noble battle in the contest therewith. There are 
few names that stand higher than those of its ad- 
herents on the roll of Protestant champions, and 
perhaps in no body of Christians is there more 
general regard for other communions. But still, 
even this system does not embody as does ours 
the principle we consider. While, as generally 
administered, it extends the hand of fellowship to 
other Christian communities, as strictly interpret- 
ed, by its standards, it does not even recognize 
the existence of local churches, but only of one 
comprehensive and general Church, in which 
there are embraced distinct congregations; and 
in reference to these, it finds not the general laws, 
only, and the main principles of their constitution 
prescribed in the Scriptures, but the precise pat- 
tern and type of that constitution, to which all 
must be perpetually conformed ; and it holds cer- 
tain antecedent processes, conducted by the mem- 
bers of a specified order, to be essential to their 
correct and scriptural existence. As a system, 
therefore, it has nothing to do with the principle 
we consider. 

Thus it is, too, though in a different way, with 
strict Independency. As taught at the first, and 
as realized, perhaps to this day, in some of the 



14 



European churches, this holds distinctly, that no 
other form of church organization is allowable but 
its own ; that Christ and the Apostles erected it, in 
all its details, as the single, immutable structure, 
within which the life of the Church must of neces- 
sity be lodged, and that, therefore, every deviation 
from its canons involves the demission of ecclesias- 
tical authority. But thus it is not, and has never 
been, with the Congregational polity. As expound- 
ed by its most eminent doctors, as embodied in rules 
and confessions of faith, as administered always in 
the churches in which it has obtained, this holds 
it as a moulding and fundamental doctrine, a doc- 
trine that is rightly to penetrate and shape all 
others, that every permanent assembly of be- 
lievers for the worship of God, is a complete and 
proper church ; a Christian family ; a household 
of the faith ; and that whatever may be the forms 
of its worship, or the processes of its discipline, or 
however rashly it may have delegated to others its 
just authority, this does not destroy its existence 
as a church. They who hold not this may retain 
the forms of Congregationalism, and its name ; but 
they have lost its spirit. And they who hold this, 
so far forth are Congregationalists in fact, though 
they should style themselves of the papacy. 

And the influence of this principle, and its 
characteristic tendencies, cannot, it would seem, 
be doubtful. 

It guards efficiently against licentiousness, either 
of belief or practice. For it expressly recognizes 
the fact, that there may be, as there have been, 



15 



such entire departures from the prime principles of 
church discipline, such an accumulation of idola- 
trous rites and superstitious fancies, overlaying and 
practically destroying the simplicity of the Gospel, 
that even the largest charity can hardly admit the 
presence of the spirit of Christ. It holds that 
there may be, as there have been, such lapses into 
heresy, such a forgetfulness and denial of the car- 
dinal truths of the Gospel — of those truths which 
constitute it a Gospel, and distinguish it from sys- 
tems of philosophy and natural religion — that the 
most solicitous inquiry shall fail to discern in the 
community " the pillar and ground of the truth. " 
And where this is the case, there is no principle 
more clear and decisive than this in its condem- 
nation, and none more certain or speedy in its 
requirement of action. 

But while thus forbidding license, it encourages, 
to the utmost, a scriptural liberty. 

If it be thoroughly received, its immediate ten- 
dency must be to prevent the narrowness and 
bigotry of the sect-spirit in those who hold it, to 
elevate their charity, and to quicken their regard 
for the Christian communities from whom they 
differ. It will make the exercise of this regard, a 
matter of principle, and not of impulse ; and will 
constrain its adherents, overlooking the minor 
peculiarities of ritual or of order, and even the 
lesser shades of doctrinal distinction, to recognize 
the existence and the attributes of a scriptural 
church, in every association of believers, whether 
governed and supervised by bishops, or ministered 



16 



unto by presbyters ; whether subscribing our 
symbol of doctrine, or believing that baptism 
must be by immersion, and that he who is once 
regenerate may fall from the grace wherein he 
stands. A spirit, not of toleration — for that is a 
thing for others to speak of — but of generous kind- 
ness, of cordial respect and warm regard, toward 
all the associated disciples of the Saviour, by 
whatever name known among men, and by what- 
ever peculiarities of discipline distinguished, of re- 
gard for their welfare, and joy in their harmony, 
and gratification at their successes, must naturally 
be cherished by this element in our system. 

And with this will be connected, also, a wil- 
lingness to cooperate with other communities, 
which " hold the Head," for the furtherance of the 
Gospel, and the advancement of Christ's kingdom. 

To ecclesiastical alliances, the coalition and 
fusion of separate organizations which differ ma- 
terially, the principle of which we are speaking, 
with all its liberality, or rather by virtue of that 
liberality, will be obviously opposed. For, while 
recognizing either system, of many, as not essen- 
tially unscriptural, and in its place appropriate, it 
holds that each is the best for its own locality and 
work ; that each should be a growth from within 
the Church, and not a structure compacted with- 
out, and thence imposed; and that each will be 
most efficient for good, or least harmful for evil, as 
it unfolds itself most naturally, and displays most 
manifestly its characteristic influences. 

But to a union of effort between the churches 



17 



of Christ, a union that is the result not of outward 
treaties but of inward affinities and kindred aims, 
the principle, as we have said, and the system 
which it modifies, must be eminently friendly. It 
makes the form of organization, a matter of alto- 
gether subordinate moment. It holds each form 
appropriate in its place, and leaves it to be 
decided in its details, the simple scriptural condi- 
tions having been fulfilled, by the circumstances 
of the church, and the preferences of its members. 
It must therefore lead those who are actuated 
by it, while they recognize other societies of 
Christ's disciples, however constituted, as equally 
with their own of the spiritual Israel, to be willing, 
and even desirous and joyful, for the increased ad- 
vancement thus accruing to the truth, to unite 
with those societies for the furtherance of the 
truth, and the extension of Christ's kingdom. 
This cannot be otherwise ; and thus between all 
churches under the impulses of this principle, 
will grow up, by degrees, a union of love and effort, 
that shall be vital and permanent, and Christ-like 
in its spirit. 

If the time permitted, I should delight to speak as 
it deserves of the elevating influence of the prin- 
ciple we are considering, in that it harmonizes and 
unites the church which holds it with the visible 
church of all past ages ; that it realizes, in a word, 
that glorious fact, which Romish theorists have 
made the foundation of their absurdest figments 
— the visible unity of the Church through all its 
history. 

3 



18 



On no other basis can this be realized. If 
we accept the prelatic system, then we so nar- 
row the Church as to exclude from it many of 
God's most eminent saints, and we find even 
the recognized body continually rent by schisms, 
and now existing in at least three great divisions, 
all mutually anathematizing each other. Upon 
any other denominational theory, into which the 
principle I have referred to does not enter, even 
this measure of unity is n^t preserved ; and there 
are mighty chasms in ecclesiastical history through 
which the seeker for the Church must flounder 
blindly. But if a church be any society of 
Christians, which maintains the ordinances of the 
Gospel and holds essentially the doctrines of 
grace, and if, therefore, its outward forms may be 
indefinitely various and yet its essential character 
and rights be fully preserved — then, upon this 
principle, the church through all the Past, save 
when it has fallen into gross heresy or vice, has 
been identical; in the fourth century the same as 
in the first; embracing Baxter and Doddridge, as 
well as Augustine and Fenelon, within the circle 
of its ministry ; and under different outward 
shows, perpetuating the one true Faith, and bearing 
through the Ages the solemn ordinances which 
Christ established. How much there is in this to 
elevate and inspire the imaginative mind, I need not 
suggest. How much even to dignify and adorn the 
Christian character. Above all forms and rites, we 
come into a noble and quickening union, of charac- 



19 



ter, of work, even of church relation, with all the 
saintly ones whose names brighten the Past ; and 
the church of our affections is not recent and sep- 
arate, cut off as an organization from all that has 
preceded, but it is just the continuation, in other 
circumstances, of that which gloried in the proto- 
martyr ; of that which argued against the Jesuits 
at Port Royal ; of that which lifted its banners 
against Conformity in England. 

But passing this, I come to a more general and 
intrinsic influence which the principle I am speak- 
ing of seems fitted to exert. It is, to make their 
minds who hold it less careful of outward forms 
and technical rules, to elevate the truth in their 
regards, and thus to induce in them increased 
spirituality of heart and life. 

Certainly, in saying this I would not reflect in- 
vidiously on the members of any communion 
which differs from ours, or boast of ourselves as 
if we were better than they. I know their ex- 
cellencies and our defects, and that they may practi- 
cally remember the principle which we forget. 
But I am speaking of the principle, and the in- 
fluence which, being received, it will naturally 
exert ; and that cannot be obscure. 

It will prohibit, with absolute authority, any 
passive reliance of the soul on outward forms, as if 
they could elevate and transform it by an inherent 
efficacy — for its very idea is, that such forms have 
had no continuity, and that in different circum- 
stances they have innocently varied. It will tend 



20 



powerfully, too, to take off the attention of the 
mind from any forms, and to fix them upon the 
truth. 

If certain outward rites and visible processes 
are believed to have been imperatively ordained 
by Christ, for the constitution of His family, then, 
even though- no miraculous and thaumaturgic 
power shall be supposed to lurk within them, yet 
their observance must be held indispensable, not 
alone to the well-being of the Church, but to that, 
also, of the individual Christians connected with 
it; and the thoughts will be naturally and proper- 
ly occupied with their preservation and trans- 
mission unimpaired to those who shall follow. 
So if any system of specific rules, either of 
organization or of worship, be regarded as univer- 
sally and forever obligatory upon Christians, or as 
indispensably needful to the order of Christ's house, 
then that system and those ceremonials will of ne- 
cessity absorb more or less of the mind's active 
attention. They will, to some extent, divert that 
attention from the spiritual truth, and the unseen 
realities ; and the danger is — the mind being na- 
turally inclined to magnify into an undue impor- 
tance whatever is outward and an object of sense, 
as distinguished from that which is distinctively 
spiritual, and being disposed also by the de- 
pravity of the heart to make whatever it can a 
screen to shield it from the convicting truth — 
the danger is that the thoughts will become 
excessively occupied with the ritual observan- 
ces, and less mindful continually of the veri- 



21 



ties of the Gospel ; that the mind will come to 
rejoice in the correctness of the ecclesiastical sys- 
tem, and to be forgetful, comparatively, of God's 
dominion and Christ's sacrifice, of the sovereignty 
of Duty, and the sinfulness of the soul, and the 
recompense of the Future. 

But if general principles alone, and not specific 
methods, of government and discipline or of public 
worship, are found in the Scriptures, and if it be 
held, intelligently, that these are to be applied in 
the manner most suitable to the circumstances 
of each society and the exigencies of each oc- 
casion, that they are germs which each community 
may nurture for itself into development and efflo- 
rescence, the fundamental doctrines whereon each, 
within the Scriptural limits, may build as it will — 
then there is here no barrier whatever between 
the soul and truth. Ecclesiasticism can hardly 
conceivably supplant Christianity. The outward 
structure must sink, by degrees, into its proper un- 
importance ; and the spiritual truth be exalted to 
its dominion. By such a principle, systematically 
applied, the mind is brought, just as directly as it 
can be, in contact with the Gospel, in its fulness 
and power. The Christ upon Calvary, and not the 
cross of the rubrics, the Tribunal of the Hereafter, 
and not the arrangements and processes of the 
present, are pressed upon its attention; and in 
comparison with the truth, it is taught continually 
to regard all other things as " hay and stubble." 
Who will not say, then, that being thus educated 
it is placed in the most favorable position and atti- 



22 



tude for being wrought upon by the Gospel? 
Who will not say that, other things being equal, 
the influences of that Gospel will shed themselves 
into it, most fully and freely ? Assuredly, this 
is so. It is the very nature of this principle, 
to exalt the substance and life of the Scriptures, 
and render the visible forms matters of insignifi- 
cance ; to make the truth first, the truth last, the 
truth, and that alone, uppermost and innermost 
and always essential, and thus not only to bring 
those who equally hold that truth, into relations of 
amity and fellowship, of earnest sympathy, even, 
and cooperation, but also, and chiefly, to fill them 
with the truth in its affluence and glory, and 
through it to lift them into union with their Head ; 
and wheresoever this principle shall have its way, 
it must at last work this result. 

Nor can I leave its consideration, without re- 
marking yet again, that while it thus directly 
influences for good the church which holds it, it 
will also, as practically applied, have connected 
with it this most important tendency, of a more 
general nature — to bring the truth into immediate 
contact with the mind of Society. 

Wherever there is a previously defined ecclesi- 
astical structure carried with the Gospel, a struc- 
ture made up of statute laws and ritual or forensic 
forms derived from some independent source, 
whether of tradition or of supposed Scriptural di- 
rection, and not conformed in their details to the 
preferences and wants of the people among whom 
churches are constituted, and as the occasions for 



23 



outward forms begin to arise — a structure that fits 
itself to no previous habits or pervading spirit in 
the community, but that erects itself in the midst 
of that community, immutable and unyielding — 
there this structure, in its strangeness and rigidity, 
will come between Society and the Gospel. The 
laws of the mind make this inevitable ; and 
nothing short of the definite and positive estab- 
lishment of such an exclusive structure by the 
Lawgiver of the Church, could for a moment 
justify the attempt to introduce it. It would not 
only conceal the truth behind itself, but it would 
actually repel the mind from the truth as associa- 
ted with it. For it would make that truth seem 
foreign and strange, and disconnect it natural- 
ly from all customary associations. As thus en- 
vironed and preceded, it could not — this must be 
obvious to every reflective mind — it could not 
come to the community with the same simplicity 
and freeness, it could not grapple the general 
heart with the same living and close hand-grasp, 
with which the truth of science would, or of his- 
tory, or of philosophy ; with which any truth 
would, that had not around and before it such a 
bristling array of positive institutions. 

And the same generic effect will be produced 
upon every community, the same relation will be 
established between it and the truth, wherever 
that truth is identified with ritual or governmental 
ordinances unsuited to the people, and at variance 
with their habits. Christianity as thus environed 
and hampered, will walk among the masses in 



24 



gyves and shackles. Its cumbrous armor of forms 
will be not useless only, but hurtful and dan- 
gerous ; as would be the mail of the Crusader in a 
battle of boats upon the open sea, or the cotton 
cuirasses and gorgeous feather-wrought helmets of 
the Aztec chivalry amid the tangled and pre- 
cipitous fastnesses of the Tyrolese Alps. For a 
Christianity so circumstanced, we cannot predict 
victories either decisive or rapid. If it make pro- 
gress at all, it will be a wonderful illustration of 
its fitness to answer the deep needs of the soul, 
and of the might of the Spirit whose instrument 
it is. 

But where the Gospel goes without such a pre- 
arranged array of formal observances — demanding, 
indeed, and irresistibly prompting, that wherever 
any are converted to its reception and filled with 
its power, they shall be organized into companies 
and permanent assemblies, for their own advance 
in grace and their more extended usefulness, 
and requiring, also, that in these assemblies the 
truth shall be maintained and the sacraments ad- 
ministered as Christ established them, but still 
leaving the outward arrangements of each assem- 
bly, the forms in which its worship shall be ren- 
dered, the processes by which its government 
shall be administered, to be decided by itself, and 
evolved in conformity with its previous associa- 
tions — wherever this is the fact, there the truths 
of the Gospel may reach the popular mind as 
readily, and grasp it as closely, as any other. 
Every provision is made for their permanent 



25 



establishment in the midst of Society. They are 
not left to be a mere fugitive and transient Doc- 
trine. But being surrounded with rules of order, 
and rites of worship, they become a permanent 
and visible and resident Christianity, established 
and recognized. But still these rules and forms, 
all the institutions which the truth calls into 
existence, are such as harmonize with the charac- 
ter and the circumstances of the place and the 
age. The spirits and tastes of the people, with a 
plastic energy, have moulded and defined them. 
They interpose, therefore, no barrier whatever be- 
tween the community and the truth. They consti- 
tute, rather, the rocky and solid platform on which 
Christianity may stand, to plant her banners and 
marshal her array. They are, as they should 
be, the carriages to her artillery; the material 
engines, within which may be collected, and from 
which may be distributed, her swift and mighty 
forces. And such a Christianity, so placed, can 
but have power. It will enter Society with irre- 
sistible energy; and being inherently adapted to 
the mind, and being accompanied by the omnipo- 
tence of God's Spirit, its working will be apparent 
throughout the times. 

Thus, therefore, is illustrated again the value of 
the principle we have thus far considered. Re- 
garding the outward forms as matters compara- 
tively of unimportance, and the essential truth and 
spirit of Christ as being alone of permanent obli- 
gation, and thus recognizing every assembly of 

disciples, which holds this truth and manifests this 
4 



26 



spirit, as equally with others a church of the 
Saviour's, it not only tends to increase the charity 
of Christians, and to exalt the truth in their regards, 
and thus to heighten the spirituality of the Church, 
and in every way to purify and elevate and en- 
ergize its life, but it tends, also, and as imme- 
diately, to make the Gospel, in its simplicity and 
power, more permeant and more operative in its 
relations to the community. So far, therefore, as 
this principle is concerned, we do right to value 
the system in which it is embodied. 

But while it is thus characteristic of Congrega- 
tionalism, that it recognizes as a church any per- 
manent assembly of believers, for the worship of 
God and the administration of Christian ordinances, 
whatever outward form that assembly may have 
assumed, or however it may have arranged its ap- 
paratus of worship, it by no means follows that all 
forms are alike indifferent to this system, or that it 
has no distinct and specific principles, which it 
would apply to the constitution of such an assem- 
bly. On the other hand, there is perhaps no 
other system, if we except the Romish, whose prin- 
ciples are so positive, and whose development of 
them, among its own churches, is so thorough and 
decisive. It seeks their extension, too, and gene- 
ral recognition ; and without being fiercely dog- 
matic in regard to them, it holds it to be both the 
privilege and the duty of every assembly to em- 
body them for itself, and only as they are thus em- 
bodied, with fulness and systematically, does it 



27 



look for the highest prosperity of the Church. In 
continuing our discussion, then, it is proper that we 
examine, in the second place, these principles, that 
we may trace them also to their appropriate fruits. 
There are but two, which we shall need to con- 
sider. The first is this : That each local so- 
ciety OF BELIEVERS, HAVING ONCE, BY ITS OWN 
ACT, BEEN CONSTITUTED AS A CHURCH, IS THERE- 
AFTER SELF-COMPLETE AND SELF-CONTROLLING, 
AND RIGHTFULLY INDEPENDENT OF THE JURISDIC- 
TION OF OTHERS. 

In no other system, except in that absolute 
Independency which errs, as we have said, in 
carrying this to its extreme, can this principle be 
said to be recognized at all. Indeed, from all 
others it is systematically excluded. But in the 
Congregational polity, as you need not be remind- 
ed, it is a main and essential element. The very 
name implies it : that each congregation of Chris- 
tians shall regulate its own procedures, elect its 
officers, and act for itself in all transactions. And 
the power of the Papacy is no more thoroughly in- 
woven with the Romish system, or the divine au- 
thority of Bishops with the Episcopal, than is this 
essential independence and self-completeness of 
each ecclesiastical society with the Congregational. 

There is, indeed, a recognition in the system, in 
connection with this principle, of the community of 
churches. By its primary principle, it inculcates, 
as I have shown, and tends to cherish the feeling 
of friendship and fellowship even for those whose 
order and visible machinerv are diverse from its 



28 



own. And of course, its tendency is to bring the 
churches distinctively organized upon its basis, 
into more intimate relations of confidence and 
counsel. The independence of Congregational 
churches is neither discord nor isolation. The en- 
tireness of each Christian assembly within itself, 
and its rightful freedom from the control of other 
such assemblies, or of any foreign body, except as 
it freely submits to and invites it, is perfectly con- 
sistent, both in theory and in practice, with a glad 
and constant recognition of the fellowship of the 
churches, and with the occasional call of each upon 
the others for counsel and advice. But still it is 
counsel that is called for. It is not an edict, or a 
decree. It is fellowship that is recognized — the af- 
fectionate fellowship of sympathizing churches — 
not in any sense the dependence, for existence or 
for rights, of one upon another. 

And the beneficial influence of this cannot, I 
think, but be apparent. A minor, and yet not alto- 
gether an unimportant felicity connected with it, is 
this : It will facilitate the diffusion of Church in- 
stitutions. 

Wherever there is a company of Christians, 
agreeing in their reception of the essential truth, 
and desiring to be associated for the worship of the 
Highest, there may a church at once be constitut- 
ed. No mystic episcopal grace is needful to the 
work. No aid, even, of presbyters is essential to 
its completion. There is no precise law and pat- 
tern of organization, which must be adhered to, 
and a deviation from which invalidates the pro- 



29 



ceeding. The whole is a matter of free consent, 
and mutual adjustment. Upon the platform of 
their common faith, the associated disciples, by 
their agreement with each other, erect their 
own church organization ; an organization com- 
plete within itself, and rightfully independent 
of every other. Wheresoever, therefore, the 
Gospel goes, thither the Church of Christ may 
follow it at once. That Gospel may be carried, 
conceivably, to the remotest lands, by shipwreck- 
ed mariners, by the sailor boy in his Bible. Borne 
upon the almost viewless tracts, those fleet and 
atrial messengers that are now sent forth on 
every wind, almost as the germs and blossoms of 
tropical fruits are said sometimes to be carried 
over seas and continents upon the pinions of the 
storm, the truths which constitute the essence of 
the Gospel — its tidings of Redemption, its revela- 
tion of Christ — may reach the remotest regions of 
the earth ; may be implanted, and may spring up 
in beauty, and may bring forth their fruit, amid 
the inlands of central Africa, or in the wilds and 
fastnesses of that ancient empire whose walls, 
when Paul was writing, were hoary with the moss 
of centuries, or on some lonely and almost unin- 
habited island of the southern Pacific; in lands 
where no voice of the living preacher was ever 
heard, and to which no other ambassador of the 
cross, has ever pierced ; and distant as is that land, 
and unapproached, and inaccessible, there may be 
constituted at once the Church of Christ, in all its 
privilege and prerogative ; with no more need of 



30 



aid from without, in order to the perfectness of its 
development, than the germ would have, when 
once deposited upon the distant mountain, of the 
presence and aid of other germs to quicken it into 
activity, and mature it into a tree. The sim- 
plicity of the system is thus the ground of its 
possible universality ; and every Christian assem- 
bly being regarded as virtually self-constituted and 
self-complete, such assemblies may spontaneously 
arise wherever the Gospel has been preached. 
Their constitution is as simple and facile as 
the lapse of water along the hill-slope, or the 
crystalization of dissolved but homogeneous and 
adjoining particles into their definite and purified 
solid. 

But a second and more intrinsic advantage con- 
nected with the principle we are considering, is 
this : It must encourage harmony among the 
churches of Christ, and diminish the hazard of 
ecclesiastical collisions. 

Under systems in which this independence of 
the churches on one another is not incorporated, 
such collisions will occasionally occur, either as be- 
tween one church and another, or as between the 
local congregation and the general body to which 
it is amenable. For so long as there is power 
resident elsewhere, to direct or to reverse the ac- 
tion of a church — the power of a tribunal superior 
to it — that power will be occasionally exerted ; and 
whensoever it is so exerted, unless exercised with 
singular moderation, and submitted to with very 
unusual facility, the result will be a serious clash- 



31 



ing of interest and feeling, by which passion will be 
inflamed, and jealousies engendered, and the pro- 
gress of the Gospel retarded for the time. This 
tendency will of course be more frequently reali- 
zed, at least the danger attending it w r ill be greater, 
as the ecclesiastical organization becomes more ex- 
tended. It reaches its climax, when a single 
body becomes the supreme legislative and judi- 
cial authority for large numbers of churches. A 
consolidated hierarchy lording it over God's heri- 
tage, or even a comparatively moderate and 
constitutional government, for supervising and 
directing the affairs of the churches, is almost 
certain at last to be divided into defined and 
struggling parties, if not to be torn by schisms, and 
broken into fragments by antagonist forces. And 
thus not only will its end be lost, but it will pre- 
sent in manifold ways a permanent obstruction to 
the progress of the truth. But where the influ- 
ences exerted by the churches over one another 
are moral merely, and not magisterial, where each 
is practically held to be free from the control of all 
the others, free, even, from any interference on their 
part except as it assents to and invites it — where 
all, in a word, while allied closely by confidence 
and friendship, by kindred impulses, and similar 
aims, are uncombined in any structure of laws, 
and therefore though free to advise are not at 
liberty to dictate — there would seem to be as little 
danger of conflict, so long as the principle is ad- 
hered to, as between the planets that surround the 
sun. There may still be occasional jarrings; 



32 



arising from the attempt on the one part to as- 
sume an unwarranted authority, or from the un- 
willingness on the other to yield to proper advice. 
But there cannot be a fierce and protracted struggle. 
One of those general and desolating conflicts be- 
comes impossible, in which anger is elicited, and 
scathing reproaches flash back and forth, and the 
spirit of^Christ is altogether forgotten. On the 
other hand, each assembly of Christians being re- 
sponsible for itself, each having its appropriate 
sphere of activity, and each in its locality its indi- 
vidual work, all must exist as friendly and sympa- 
thizing servants of the same Master, co-working 
members of the same Head. 

And there is another influence connected with 
this principle, in its practical application, to which I 
cannot refrain from calling your attention. It 
is : To check the spread of controversy among 
churches, and by limiting its sphere to shorten its 
existence. 

Confessedly, there is almost nothing else which 
so retards and prejudices the truth in its advance- 
ment, which blocks its wheels, indeed, so certain- 
ly and swiftly, as does the existence of contro- 
versy within the Church. For it not only distracts 
the thoughts of Christians from their appropriate 
work, and fills their minds with the fumes of ex- 
cited passion, and sometimes of personal anger, 
when, in order to their activity as well as to their 
happiness, they should be glowing with the beauty 
and radiant with the light of Christ and of His 
Spirit, but it becomes a direct and often a peremp- 



33 



tory bar to the conversion of others. Men find 
in it excuses, and almost justifying reasons, for 
their unbelief of the truth. They will not wel- 
come the Gospel and recognize its glory, while 
such as these are its apparent fruits. And through 
the triple harness of prejudice and contempt, in 
which they then encase themselves, no sharp ap- 
peal or heavy argument can break or pierce. 
Before the truth can reach them again, they must 
be led to cast off their resistance, by the returning 
serenity and loveliness of the Christian spirit. 

But such controversies will occasionally arise ; 
partly, because men cannot see all the relations 
and motives of any disputed act, and partly, be- 
cause in the minds of even the most intelligent 
Christians, some latent and unsuspected bias is 
liable to operate. And when they arise, there are 
enough to fan them. The unregenerate who are 
in the Church, will love for its own sake such food 
for passion, and will find in their activity in re- 
gard to it a kind of relief, and outward compensa- 
tion, for their neglect of duty. And even good 
men will not unfrequently become enlisted, before 
they are aware of it, as the advocates of a party, 
and find their consciences excited in its behalf. 
The tendency therefore is, with such a con- 
troversy, to widen its circle constantly, and to 
become embittered as it proceeds. The zeal of 
one man, of one community, excites that or the 
opposite, in other persons, in other communities ; 
and of the end of such excitements, once thorough- 
ly enkindled, knoweth no man, nor even the 
5 



34 



angels of God ! After their outward results have 
disappeared, their red and angry scars, of cutting 
and of burning, abide upon the soul. 

How then shall we resist this ? By what out- 
ward arrangements, supposing us at liberty to 
select, shall we most effectually prevent the spread 
of controversies throughout the Church ? 

I answer unhesitatingly — and I cannot but think 
that in the answer I carry with me the common sense 
and the Christian sense of every reflective hearer 
— I answer unhesitatingly, that judging as we now 
do, from analysis alone, and a priori inference, and 
not at all from actual events, the surest and the 
only effective mode of accomplishing this, and of 
drawing from such excitements their bitter and 
fiery life, is to confine their sphere ; to narrow, as 
far as practicable, the limits within which they 
may rage ; to treat them as medical men treat the 
diseases which are contagious — let the locality at 
which they centre be shut off from all others, and 
let no outward contacts diffuse the miasma. 

It is at just this point, therefore, that the excel- 
lence of the principle I am considering, in its prac- 
tical application to this specific subject, becomes 
apparent. Make churches independent, establish 
the principle as a fact in the system, that each 
assembly of believers is to act for itself, Christ 
being its sole Lawgiver, and no other assemblies 
being responsible for it or authorized to direct it, 
and then, though it should be torn into fragments 
by the violent animosities of contending factions, 
the churches that surround it need hardly be 



35 



jarred by the explosion. There will be for a time 
a smoke in the air ; and the sudden uproar where 
all has been so quiet, may make the passers pause 
in wonder. But there is nothing to spread the 
flame. There are no subtle acoustic tubes, 
to carry the noise to distant points. And all 
must speedily subside in quiet, and the ele- 
ments that were discordant be re-arranged in 
other combinations. 

But now suppose that point connected with 
others in a complicated ecclesiastical frame-work ; 
suppose conventions, Diocesan and General, to be- 
come concerned in the excitement, and penetrated 
with it; suppose Presbyteries convened to con- 
sider church action, and Synods to decide upon 
the action of Presbyteries, and some body still 
more extended and universal, in which the whole 
constituency of the Church is represented and vir- 
tually present, to revise, and consider anew, and 
finally revoke or establish the action of these — 
how manifest is it — surely, my friends, I do not 
say this in any spirit of fault finding and crimina- 
tion, but simply in just vindication of our peculiari- 
ties — how manifest is it, almost beyond the power 
of argument to make it more so, that under these 
systems, if under any conceivable, an angry con- 
troversy, once thoroughly started in the Church, 
must spread and riot. The whole ecclesiastical 
arrangement facilitates its diffusion. Each line of 
legal connexion becomes a medium jpr its trans- 
mission. Each centre of judicial or executive 
authority is a new focus at which to collect, and 



36 



from which to scatter it. And the more system- 
atically and thoroughly the whole arrangement is 
applied, the more general and rapid must be its 
extension. 

But passing this now, as sufficiently illustrated, I 
come to yet another and a fourth influence con- 
nected with the principle, of too much importance 
to be overlooked. It is : To render each local 
church more efficient and useful, by forbidding it 
to delegate its responsibility to any organization 
more general than itself. 

The attainment of this, humanly speaking, is in- 
dispensable in order to the most rapid and general 
establishment of Christ's dominion on the earth. 
Then only will the end be gained for which He 
died, and the results accomplished seen from afar 
in the prophetic ecstacy, when each society of be- 
lievers shall labor in its work as if the salvation of 
all depended upon itself, fulfilling the measure of 
its duty, and striving continuously and strenuously 
for the furtherance of the truth, wherever its alms 
may reach or its influences extend. And this can 
certainly be effected most readily, it can only be 
fully effected, under that system which recognizes 
each church as an integer, an individual, self-con- 
stituted and self-complete ; responsible, therefore, 
directly to Christ, and not to any intervenient body 
between itself and Him. So strong and influ- 
ential, even within the Church, is the love of the 
world, as c<^itradistinguished from the love of the 
truth, and so numerous and so prevalent are the 
influences that would seduce its individual mem- 



37 



bers to the neglect of their duty, that it is a law 
almost as certain as any of nature, and to be 
reckoned upon with the same assurance, that if 
there be any general consolidation of the churches 
into an organic whole, the pressure of felt re- 
sponsibility will sit lightlier upon each, and the 
activity to which each is prompted, will be di- 
minished in its degree. That, then, in its practical 
working, will be the most efficient system, if we may 
trust a deduction we cannot escape, under which 
each local assembly is made inevitably to stand by 
itself, with nothing before it or above it, to relieve 
it of its duty. 

There is needed, also, indeed, a sufficiently inti- 
mate connexion between it and its sister churches, 
to allow each to incite the zeal of the rest, and in its 
turn to receive from them their animating influ- 
ences ; and for this, as we have seen, provision is 
made in the Congregational system. There is 
needed, also, or there may be, a single and perma- 
nent executive body, through which the associated 
assemblies may act unitedly. And to this, also, 
the principle we consider can have no repugnance. 
But it is needful first and chiefly, that each church 
be in itself a Whole; that its relation to other 
churches be one of brotherhood and sympathy, 
not as a fractional part to the unit which em- 
braces it. 

And this the Congregational system, through 
the principle I am adverting to, most plainly 
secures. To all consolidation of churches into a 
mass, even to legal alliances between them, both 



38 



its principles and its spirit are utterly opposed. It 
requires that their connexions with one another be 
only of inward affinities and similar efforts, not of 
formal agreements and outward laws ; that while 
their sympathies are blended, their rights or their 
existences be never merged. While each church, 
therefore, on its basis, is connected with all 
others, it can never be organically blended with 
or lost among them. It must stand forth from the 
rest, distinct, and individual, and singly responsi- 
ble. It is a personal organism within itself, and 
as a person it has its duties. To it, the commands 
of the Saviour are immediately addressed. On it, 
rests the responsibility of human conversions. Its 
duty is undiminished if every other society labor 
with faithfulness. Its duty is unabated though 
every other forget the Saviour. And except upon 
this principle, practically received, the highest 
measure of church activity can never be elicited. 

But passing from this, I remark again and 
fifthly, that the independence of local churches 
will tend : To preserve the truth among them, and 
to prevent the rapid and extensive diffusion of 
error. 

There can be no ecclesiastical arrangement that 
shall absolutely preclude the admission of error. 
Through the most elaborate structures it will some- 
times enter ; for its great Inventor is ever active, 
its forms are Protean, and in the narrowness of 
our minds, the very energy with which the truth 
is received may not unfrequently become its occa- 
sion. The question, then, of highest interest for 



39 



us to solve in this direction, is simply this : What 
constitution of the Church will most effectually 
prevent its diffusion ? And to this I reply, with- 
out hesitation, The Congregational ; and by reason, 
especially, of the principle which we have last 
affirmed, that each of its churches is independent 
of the rest. 

Even if error and truth stood upon precisely the 
same ground, of inward strength and fitness to the 
soul, the one as a deadly principle, the other as a 
living and regenerative — the error in its advances 
would be most effectually retarded by a practical 
recognition of this independence and self-com- 
pleteness of every church. For that church, by 
the definition of its nature, is admitted at the out- 
set to possess the truth. So long, then, as it stands 
alone, it remains a point for separate attack. It 
must be mastered by itself. In a community of 
such churches, there are hundreds of assemblies, 
and every one is a citadel for the truth. The mo- 
ment that you combine them into one great 
organization — the moment, if I may so express 
it, that you collect these separate garrisons into 
one mighty and central fortress — you simplify and 
facilitate indefinitely the enemy's campaign. If 
then, the error, by stratagem or by corruption, 
through its appeal to the passions, or under its 
skilful disguise in the semblance of truth, can 
master the single and central point, its work is 
wrought. It will embody itself at once in a gen- 
eral Creed ; and its standard being established in 
the ecclesiastical metropolis, at the centre of 



40 



government, in the focus of influences, its hold 
will he fastened upon hundreds of churches. 
Give me, rather than this, a community of 
churches, established together upon the Congre- 
gational platform, and thus with no combinations 
or ecclesiastical centres, but with the indepen- 
dence of each a recognized fact. The error then 
may come in its subtlety, or come in its power; 
but even as when the people are rising in their 
masses against the invader, every village shall be 
a fortress, and every local society a new battle 
ground for the right. The defeat of one captain, 
shall involve in no degree the overthrow of the 
rest. Though treachery prevail at one point, 
there will be hundreds of others still unassailed. 
When one band has yielded, another shall be 
ready to resume the struggle. And of such an 
enemy — even as Napoleon found in the Peninsula, 
as the English found in this country, as many a 
heresiarch has found in his protracted attempts on 
independent churches — of such an enemy, no 
art or force can finally complete the conquest. 

But in arguing the point thus far, you must have 
felt, my friends, that I have done the truth the 
greatest injustice. I have assumed for the mo- 
ment, what no one will admit, that error is equal 
with it, in its inherent force. This is not so. 
The truth is God's ; His friend ; His instrument ; 
and 

" The eternal years of God are her's." 

There is a life in the truth, which there is in 



41 



nothing else. It is self-harmonious, and is pene- 
trated throughout with the same celestial force. 
While error is full of weaknesses and contradic- 
tions, a shell and superficial structure, this is a 
perennial growth, an emanation in its glory from 
the Divine Intelligence. 

It is adapted to the mind, too, as error is not ; 
and not only has greater power within itself and 
absolutely, but greater fitness to reach and mould 
and satisfy the soul. This is a point which it is 
well for us to consider, for mistake lies near it on 
either hand. 

There is one faculty of the soul which error 
satisfies, and only one. It is the will, which 
chooses the wrong and hates Jehovah. To this 
the truth is utterly opposed ; for the moment that 
is received, it presses and bears upon its depraved 
dispositions with an energy that at times becomes 
insupportable. The will, therefore, does not re- 
ceive the truth, except as its resistance is over- 
come by the influences of God's Spirit. If it 
cannot reject, it holds that truth in abeyance, and 
it seeks and it loves the error which is soothing. 
But this error, which is so congenial to the will, 
when fairly examined suits nothing else within 
the soul. The intellect was made in God's own 
image. It was made to respond to the harmonies 
of the truth ; to need and to desire its noble ele- 
ments, and when they were found, to repose itself 
upon them, and find in them its nourishment. 
This is the measure of its stature ; and this its 

function. And to this it even now is radically 
6 



42 



true. Injured, and at some points almost over- 
thrown, as it has been by sin, defaced and broken 
as are its proud inscriptions, tarnished and marred 
its golden architrave, it still in the circle of years 
shows sympathy with the truth. There are with- 
in it laws of right reason, the pillars to its arches, 
which sin cannot destroy, which error cannot 
fill. There are high intellectual instincts, great 
aspirations for the sublime in thought, which error 
is utterly inadequate to meet, with which the truth 
alone, in its loftiness and majesty, can thorough- 
ly coincide. And what the intellect thus de- 
mands, when fully awakened, the conscience, I 
need not say, still more emphatically requires. 
There are even some impulses of the emotive 
nature, some generous sympathies, and quick and 
lofty affections, which as they find more light and 
culture under the truth than under error, so they 
seize it more readily and love it better. And on 
the whole it is true, that though error pleases the 
will, while truth opposes and breaks it, the soul 
can never be thoroughly satisfied with anything 
but the truth; and even the unregenerate mind, 
while loving the error, will be full of unrest and 
vague aspirings. 

Suppose, then, this single resistance of the will 
to have been overcome, as it has been in Chris- 
tians by the Spirit of God ; suppose the two-leaved 
brazen doors to have been opened within the 
heart, and the truth to have entered and filled the 
soul, to have flooded it with its light and kindling 
warmth, to have purified and illuminated its at- 



43 



mosphere of feeling, and to have sent into the 
springs and roots of thought and action its vivify- 
ing power ; and suppose a company of Christians 
joined in love and striving to promote each other's 
welfare, and to enkindle and concentrate in every 
heart the lights of knowledge common to all — and 
how will you banish again that light, and change 
it into darkness ? How will you then expel the 
truth, and bring the error into its place ? Is it 
not manifest that it must be done, if done at all, 
by some agency extrinsic to the error ? Being so 
weak and insufficient in contrast with the truth, 
this cannot advance by its positive force. It 
cannot exist, even, by its inherent vitality. In 
order to its successful diffusion among Christians, 
it must be imposed by authority. It must be sub- 
tly disseminated from points of advantage. It 
must avail itself carefully of outward appliances ; 
of station in the church ; of positions of authority. 
Discussion is fatal to it ; and it dies almost certain- 
ly, when thoroughly tested. 

Under the light of this, then, what system of 
church constitution must be most hostile to the 
diffusion of error, and most propitious to the main- 
tenance of the truth ? Is it not that in which dis- 
cussion is rendered inevitable ? in which every 
tenet that seeks for assent, must struggle for itself 
in the contest with others ? that system in which 
there are no points of central authority from 
which an error may in silence be distributed ; but in 
which each separate assembly of Christ's disciples 
is independent of others, and all are on the footing 






44 



of mutual equality, and no influences can be exert- 
ed that are not moral and persuasive ? in a word, 
is it not that system, in which this principle, that 
every church of Christ, as a society of believers, is 
rightfully self-complete and self-controlling, is 
practically held in its simplicity and fulness ? I 
cannot think otherwise. And often as it has been 
declared, especially in this community, that Con- 
gregationalism, as a practical system, tends always 
to heresy, I must believe, — unless the teachings of 
experience shall be found, when they are examin- 
ed, to override and deny all deductions of analysis 
— I must believe, until, which God forbid ! I lose my 
confidence in the power of the truth, that this will 
be best for the resistance of error. 

I am brought, then, to the sixth point suggested 
under this principle. It is the last which I shall 
ask you at this time to consider. It is : That the 
independence of local churches will naturally en- 
courage and facilitate progress in the development 
of the truth. 

Truth, in itself, as an absolute system, as exist- 
ing in the Divine mind, and without reference to 
our conceptions of it — truth, even, objectively con- 
sidered, as embodied in part in the Scriptures of 
inspiration— is of course eternal and immutable ; a 
unit ; as little susceptible to change or progress as 
is the nature of God. But truth as a subjective 
principle, truth as brought to the view of the 
soul, and received by it as the object of its belief, 
may change its aspects almost indefinitely; may 
become from time to time more distinct to the 



45 



mental conceptions ; and may be perceived by one 
mind in other phases and aspects, and in more of 
its relations, than are obvious to others. Even as 
the system of the heavens is still the same as when 
the Chaldean shepherd gazed thereon, or the 
Egyptian priest observed the stars through the 
clear desert-air, or the Grecian Pythagoras, in his 
high listening thought, seemed to himself to catch 
afar their spheral music — is the same, even, as 
when Copernicus announced the true theory of 
the earth, and Kepler developed the laws of the 
planetary motions, and Newton revealed the 
universal principle which governs all worlds and 
systems, and holds them on their poise — but many 
problems have now been solved that were inscruta- 
ble to them, and many stars which they saw not 
have been sought out by the penetrating minis- 
ters of modern astronomy, and many a shining 
haze, as of a starry cloud, has been resolved into 
its myriads of suns — so the system of truth, though 
now the same as when the Synod met at Dort, as 
when the Assembly of Divines convened at West- 
minster, as when the Councils were gathered at Nice 
and Chalcedon, has all the time been unfolding the 
beauty of its proportions ; has been modified in its 
apparent relations by the researches of science 
and the investigations of Psychology ; has been pre- 
sented from age to age in fresher and more appro- 
priate costume ; and may now be exhibited to the 
mind with a wider sweep of connexions, and in a 
more precise and comprehensive analysis. The- 
ology, in this sense, is a progressive science. It 



46 



was intended of God to be so. And while its ele- 
mentary principles are few and simple, and appre- 
hensible easily by the humblest intelligence, its 
higher and more recondite truths, its remoter re- 
lations, reveal themselves only to the devout and 
diligent inquirer, and by such shall be mastered 
progressively through the cycles of eternity. 

That, then, is the noblest system of ecclesiastical 
constitution, by the principles of which provision is 
most effectually made for encouraging and facilita- 
ting these possible advances in the knowledge of 
the truth. And here, again, we see, if I mistake 
not, an excellence of our system. 

By requiring only the essential truth, held with 
the heart, in any society of Christians, as the evi- 
dence and basis of their church constitution, it en- 
courages to the furthest proper limit true freedom 
of inquiry, and gives range and scope to theological 
discussion. By making each separate assembly of 
believers the compiler for itself of its doctrinal 
basis, it awakens the largest number of minds to 
the consideration of the truth, and gives to that 
truth, as addressing itself to their thoughts, a fresh- 
ness and energy which it could not otherwise gain. 
Essentially, too, and in its structure and spirit, its 
sympathies are with a large-minded theology ; with 
a theology that shall be truthful, rather than in- 
genious, and elevated and spiritual rather than 
cramped and dogmatic. Its forms being simple, its 
principles catholic, and its laws nothing more than 
the creatures of agreement, the same tendency 
toward harmony between the ecclesiastical frame- 



47 



work of the Church and its doctrinal system which 
makes the Romish theology, as was said before, 
obscure, and intricate, and material, must make the 
Congregational perspicuous and rational, simple in 
its elements, as truth always is, but ample and 
unconfined in its majestic proportions. There may 
be minds, of course, so constituted by nature, or so 
trained by habit, that they will not feel this silent 
influence. There may be periods, even, when it 
shall cease seemingly to operate. But wheresoever 
the principles of Congregationalism are systemati- 
cally applied, there, in the course of years, this ten- 
dency which is bedded in the system, will certainly 
be seen. And while error is resisted and forbidden 
to establish itself, there will probably be advances 
in the knowledge of the truth. 

And when these are made, the system provides 
most perfectly for their introduction and settlement 
in the general faith. 

It must always be difficult to effect any change, 
even the slightest, under an organization extensive 
and ancient, because there will be numbers opposed 
to any innovation, and other numbers who cannot 
agree upon the desirable amendments. To pene- 
trate a mass with new vitality, requires great pres- 
sure and energy in the principle. It is a work too 
mighty for the newly discovered truth. Change, 
therefore, without separation, becomes impossible ; 
and the dogmas that are obsolete, and the formulas 
that are barbarous, are liable to be transmitted from 
generation to generation, obscuring the beauty 
of the truth, if not perplexing the conscience with 



48 



a continual contrast between the convictions of the 
intellect and the outward professions. But if each 
church, on the other hand, be independent of the 
rest, the light that has reached one may there be 
fixed and rendered permanent, and thus be- 
come a beacon unto others. And if it be a truth, 
indeed, celestial in its origin, and shining from with-, 
in with native lustre, and not an artificial theory 
bedizzened from without with an ambitious rheto- 
ric — in a word, if it commend itself to sober rea- 
son, to Christian experience and consciousness, and 
can be justified from the only infallible Guide — then 
by it others shall be attracted, their knowledge 
increased, their views of the truth exalted and 
freshened, and their conceptions of its relations en- 
larged and amplified, until the increased know- 
edge shall be generally diffused, and all shall 
rejoice in the effulgence the kindling of whose 
splendor was at a single point. 

In every aspect, then, in which it presents itself, 
this principle of the independence of each local 
church, and its self-completeness as an organic 
society, seems advantageous and beneficent. It 
will facilitate the diffusion of Church institutions. 
It must encourage harmony among churches, and 
diminish the hazard of ecclesiastical collisions. It 
must check the spread of desolating controversies. 
It must render each church more efficient and use- 
ful. Its tendency will be to prevent the diffusion 
of error, and equally, on the other hand, to facilitate 
progress in the analysis of the truth. And, there- 
fore, for these its influences we are at liberty to 



49 



prize it, and the system in which it is embraced is 
worthy of our love. 

But there is a second specific principle in the 
Congregational polity, equally well ascertained with 
the preceding, as essential as that to the integrity 
of the system, and no less prominent and distinct- 
ive in it. It is : that all the members of a local 

CHURCH, AS MEMBERS, ARE RIGHTFULLY EQUAL 
WITH EACH OTHER, IN PRIVILEGE AND IN OBLI- 
GATION THE ONLY PERMANENT OFFICERS IN 

THE CHURCH BEING THE TEACHER OR SPIRIT- 
UAL Guide — with those whose duty it is to 

PROVIDE FOR THE ORDINANCES AND TO DISTRIBUTE 
THE CHARITIES. 

The Pastoral and Diaconal offices are received 
as established in the Church by scriptural appoint- 
ment; but under the Congregational system they 
bear simply the function and prerogative which 
are indicated respectively by the names affixed to 
them. The Pastor is but one of the brotherhood, 
set apart by themselves, or by a council which 
represents them for the occasion, as their instruc- 
tor in the truth, and, under Christ, their Christian 
exemplar ; and the Deacon is a member of the 
church, to whom is assigned a particular service. 
From time to time, too, there will arise conjunc- 
tures, requiring the appointment of other officers, 
as committees, for a specified purpose and a limit- 
ed time. But these are simply executive offi- 
cers, designated by the body of the communi- 
cants to accomplish their will, and thus to facili- 
tate the transaction of business. Among the 
7 



50 



members of the church there is an absolute 
equality, not of personal character, of course, or 
force of soul, any more than of property, or social 
influence and esteem ; but an equality of rights, 
and of obligation, as members of the church. 
All are equally responsible for the well-being 
of the body, and all are at liberty to act in 
every case.* Examining, then, this element in 
our church polity, what will be its characteristic 
tendencies ? and what the influences which it 
will naturally exert ? 

Undoubtedly, if the so-called church were sup- 
posed to be composed of worldly and hypocritical 
professors, in whom dwelt nothing or little of 
the spirit of Christ, and who were banded to- 
gether simply for selfish and worldly ends, then 
the tendency of this principle would be, as carried 

* In the Cambridge Platform, agreed upon A. D., 1648, by the elders 
and messengers of the churches in Massachusetts, while every congrega- 
tion of believers is recognized as a complete and valid church, and while 
the rights, not of the brotherhood only, but of its every member, are 
repeatedly affirmed, are insisted on earnestly, and guarded and guaran- 
teed with strictest vigilance, provision is also made for the election by 
the church, if it choose, of one or more ruling elders distinct from the 
pastor, whose duty it should be to "join with the pastor and teacher in 
those acts of spiritual rule, which are distinct from the ministry of the 
word and sacraments committed to them ;" and for a time this was the 
practice in a part of the churches of the Massachusetts Colony. But 
even where it obtained, the whole authority of the church was still vest- 
ed in the body of associated disciples • it was expressly provided that 
" no power of government in the elders should in any wise prejudice the 
power of privilege in the brotherhood ;" to them the elder was constant- 
ly amenable ; and nothing could be done except by their consent. And 
ere long the custom of setting apart any such representative fell into 
entire desuetude and forgetfulness. It has not, probably, been known in 
New England for a full century. 



51 



into practice, to make each selfish and self-reliant ; 
to give opportunity for the oppression of the un- 
popular; to furnish scope and multiply motives for 
the exercise of ill-will; and, generally, to render 
each tenacious of his own opinion, and jealous 
of his neighbor. By such professors much in- 
jury might be done ; and of such a society, it 
would not be difficult to predict the end. It 
must be constantly distracted and torn by strug- 
gling factions, until it should cease entirely 
to exist. 

But if the church be what it should be ; what it 
must certainly be assumed to be in any reasoning 
in regard to it ; what, indeed, if it be not it 
is no church at all but only a synagogue of Satan 
— if it be a congregation of faithful men, sanc- 
tified as yet but in part, and liable to mis- 
take through necessary limitation of faculty and 
of knowledge, but still united in cordial love to 
the doctrines of grace, and striving together, 
with the aid and guidance of the Divine Spirit, 
to grow in holiness and to improve and edify each 
other — then the influence upon them of this prin- 
ciple in their polity cannot fail to be happy. 

That it will prevent the arising, among the 
ministers of the Church, of that pride of place and 
insolence of rank which are sometimes too pain- 
fully manifest among the ecclesiastical Dignitaries 
of certain communions, is only too obvious to 
be argued. It will benefit each church, too, more 
immediately than this. By abolishing every invi- 
dious distinction between the members of Christ's 



52 



family, by admitting among or over them no privi- 
leged order, and placing all on the footing of offi- 
cial equality, it will attach all members of the 
body more directly to itself, and render them 
more jealous for its honor, and more solicitous for 
its increase. It will also prevent occasions of jeal- 
ousy and distrust ; and will give the freest play to 
those cordial and sympathetic affections which 
so illustrate and embellish the Christian character, 
and which must flourish most vigorously and 
flower in richest beauty in this environment. It 
will prevent, too, on the one hand, that loss of in- 
fluence by the worthy which with some would at- 
tend their elevation to office ; and equally, on the 
other hand, that permanent detriment to the 
highest interests of the church which might be in- 
flicted by the unworthy, who by accident or in- 
trigue should have secured themselves in office. 
In a word, its tendency is, and most beneficial is 
it, to make each influential according to his merit, 
and to render perceived desert the measure of 
power. It will facilitate, too, the discipline of the 
church, and render it more just and more effective ; 
since the assembly of disciples, as a corporate 
society, will always be readier to act in cases of 
difficulty than will a few individuals who act in their 
name ; their minds will be less liable to be wrong- 
fully biassed ; and the decision of all who have 
been associated with the offender, will carry with 
it a weight of authority that could not attach to any 
other. 

But even this is incidental. The main and most 



53 

characteristic influence of the principle, and that 
for which it is chiefly to be prized, is this : It will 
make each member of the church more fully res- 
ponsible, and more regularly active. 

This must be obvious. Removing all appellate 
tribunals, save One, from above the church, and 
vesting all authority and power in the company of 
disciples, among whom there is absolute equality 
of rights, it brings the soul of each under the im- 
mediate pressure of its personal duty. The respon- 
sibility which rests upon each is constantly urgent. 
It cannot be shaken off, or delegated to others. 
There being no authorized Episcopate, no body of 
elders even, to whom may be confided the interests 
of the church, and who may stand between the in- 
dividual and his duty, personal exertion upon the 
part of each becomes not possible only, but need- 
ful and indispensable. It is required, as well as 
permitted ; required in order to the growth of the 
church, and its advancing usefulness ; required, 
even, in order to the stability of the church — that 
the entire household, being girded about by no 
external and legal bands, and being upheld by no 
cemented confederacies, may not be suddenly or 
gradually disintegrated and scattered. There 
must be activity at home, in the diligent dis- 
charge of private duty ; in the preservation or the 
purification of the church from heresy and strife ; 
in the rendering of aid to those who are in want, 
and of comfort and instruction to the weak in faith. 
There must be activity abroad, in the gathering of 
the unconverted into the fold of Christ, and in the 



54 



general efforts for the extension of His kingdom. 
There must be activity on the part of all its mem- 
bers, if a church is to advance and flourish, which 
stands alone and unsupported to speak for truth 
amid the markets of the world, and whose everv 
member is equally responsible for the purity of its 
doctrine, and the correctness of its discipline, and 
the energy and success of its aggressive move- 
ments. A church, therefore, established upon this 
principle, will be to its members just what all 
churches should be, just what they were designed 
to be by their Divine Founder, and what they ac- 
tually were in the primitive age — not a place for 
the merely passive reception of beneficial influ- 
ences ; certainly not a place for an only intermit- 
tent and unauthorized activity ; but a school of 
mental and moral discipline ; an arena, for the 
steady development and acquisition of spiritual 
force ; a scene of preparation for the grander min- 
istries of Heaven. And under the influences of 
such a church the piety of the Christian will be 
nurtured and disciplined, and his character be 
moulded into distinct proportion. 

It will tend to induce in him peculiar efficiency 
and steadfastness of Christian principle. This will 
come as the result of the exertion required, and the 
attendant responsibility. For it is the nature of 
the Christian principle to concentrate and establish 
its energies, and to unfold its influences through- 
out the character, just in proportion as it is appro- 
priately exercised. It grows, as a muscle of the 
arm grows, in the ratio of its healthful and regular 



55 



use. It advances to maturity and a full develop- 
ment, just as a faculty of the mind advances — the 
Understanding, the Imagination, the Conscience — 
the more rapidly and certainly as it is employed 
more constantly for noble ends. That, therefore, 
in a church which requires its members to decide 
and to act, that which places before each the oppor- 
tunities for exertion, and compels him to enlist in his 
appropriate activities, will cherish within him this 
energy and stability of Christian principle. Other 
things being equal, he will become more manly 
and self-possessed. Being trained to act, in church 
relations, not as he would but as he ought, freely, 
and yet with entire and constant responsibleness 
to Christ, he will become accustomed to act thus 
in all relations ; to regard Duty as everywhere the 
paramount concern, and in its accomplishment or 
pursuit to be fearless and resolute. 

And his intelligence will be increased, and the 
prayerfulness of his spirit, as well as the strength 
of his principle of obedience. He is called not to 
act merely, but to act wisely, and for the best, and 
under the weightiest responsibility that can be laid 
upon the soul. If, therefore, he has any clear view 
of his relation to the church, or any desire for its 
permanent good, he will not put forth his power 
heedlessly, or without prayerfulness and reflection. 
He must accustom himself to the examination of 
the path of his duty. He must scrutinize with in- 
tentness his motives and impulses. He must learn 
to discriminate, both in their character and their re- 
sults, between courses presented. Especially, must 



56 



he apply himself to the study of God's word, and 
the mastery of its principles, and the culture within 
himself of the spirit of Christ. If he did not this, 
he would betray his trust, for he would incur the 
risk of injuring that which he is bound to benefit, 
and of retarding a progress which he has pledged 
himself to aid. As a Christian, therefore, he will 
do this. And as he does it, he will grow in knowl- 
edge. The pressure of the requirement will beget 
fitness to meet it. His progress may not be visible 
at once, but in the sweep of years it will be seen. 
The mind will become more thoroughly familiar 
with the principles of duty ; more conversant with 
the truths it is set to maintain ; more competent 
to distinguish between courses presented. Its very 
faculties will be energized and unfolded, while 
the heart will be driven to the Throne, for wisdom 
and for strength. 

I hardly need add that with the piety which 
is thus increasingly efficient and intelligent, will 
come a new symmetry and completeness of 
Christian character. It is the boast of Prelacy, 
that under the influences of her order and ritual, 
there is secured a symmetry of piety not seen else- 
where ; that while the members of other com- 
munions are often shrewd in argument, and active 
and forward in plans of benevolence, the members 
of the Episcopal are found growing into a prac- 
tical Christianity of spirit and life, more genial 
and proportionate, nobler in its elevation, more 
winning in its beauty. With the question of fact 
we are not now concerned. But certainly we 



57 



may affirm that this is not the natural result of the 
principles of that scheme, as distinguished from 
ours, and the philosophy is a poor one that does not 
perceive this. Inactivity is the parent, not of 
weakness merely, but of deformity. A secluded 
and cloistered piety, such a piety as Milton depre- 
cated, is almost of necessity dwarfish and dispro- 
portioned ; and just in proportion as its segregation 
from the distinctive activities of the Christian 
course becomes more complete, is this natural ten- 
dency realized more fully. That is the truly noble 
and admirable Christian character, which is unfold- 
ed and matured amid effort, and with thought ; 
which inquires for itself, and freely decides ; which 
is embarrassed by difficulties, and patiently sur- 
mounts them ; which feels the burden of responsibi- 
lity, and meekly and patiently bears up beneath it ; 
which is tempted, perhaps, to leave the path of 
rectitude, and bravely resists the temptation, and 
tramples it under foot ; which learns to be serene 
and fearless in the midst of opposition, and mindful 
always of its obligation to God, and not afraid of 
what man can do ; a piety, which is at once active 
and meditative ; careful for religious truth, and ear- 
nest in its adherence to it, and yet desirous mainly 
to deduce from that truth its practical influences, 
and to make it the counsellor of the Christian life. 
And such a piety as this — combining within 
itself so many elements of excellence — it is not 
too much to say that it must be the tendency 
of the Congregational system, through the prin- 
ciple we consider, to foster and unfold. It aims 
8 



58 



to bring the members of the church into such a re- 
lation that each may be acted on by the rest, and 
in return may benefit them. It aims directly 
to educate each ; and to do for all its members what 
the Presbyterian system does for its selected 
Elders. It is based on the assumption, that all 
should be, as all may be, not subjects only, and 
servitors, but free and responsible citizens in the 
Christian commonwealth. It is in the Church what 
democracy is, in its high and philosophical sense, 
in the State ; and as the tendency of this is, in a 
virtuous and enlightened society, to discipline and 
to educate, by making each responsible to make 
each competent, so the tendency of Congregational- 
ism is in the Church, the preponderating tendency 
therein being in favor of the right, to increase the 
intelligence, and invigorate the principle. Center- 
ing all authority and all obligation in the associated 
Christians, vesting in them equally the obligation 
to act, and removing every intermediate represen- 
tative from between the disciple and his master, it 
grapples each closely and personally to his indivi- 
dual duty. Requiring him to act, it requires him to 
think. It requires him to fit himself for his work, 
by study and self-scrutiny, by prayer to God, and 
communion with Christ. And thus, if the system 
be applied in practice with anything of the appro- 
priate spirit, its tendency must be to strengthen 
and to dignify the character of the Christian ; to 
give it a mingled energy and grace, like that 
attained by the physical system when it has been 
trained from youth to manly exercise. 



59 



And this being the effect of the principle npon 
individual Christians, its effect upon the church 
will surely be happy. For the character of a church 
is really, in the last analysis, but just the result and 
expression of the character of its members ; and 
its history, for good or for evil, will be determined 
by them. Whatever, therefore, elevates their cha- 
racter, and purifies their spirit, will tend inevitably 
to secure and advance its permanent well-being. 
The pressure of responsibility which makes them 
more vigorous, intelligent, and prayerful, in its se- 
condary effect, will make it more active, efficient, 
and devotional. In the time of peace, its charities 
will be larger. In the time of trial, pecuniary or 
other, it will develope a greatness of strength, and 
a tenacity of endurance, to which others are stran- 
gers. In its discipline, as administered toward its 
erring members, we may properly look for tender- 
ness conjoined with firmness ; the tenderness of 
affectionate brethren, but the firmness of freemen 
responsible to God. In its aggressive movements 
for the conversion of men, we may presume on dis- 
covering heartiness and energy, views clear and 
comprehensive, and singular success. The charac- 
ter of the church will re-act upon its ministry, and 
will stimulate them to higher attainments in know- 
ledge and grace, and to greater activity in Christian 
duty. And they, in turn, compensating them- 
selves for the absence of official prerogative by 
the increased purity and dignity of their personal 
character, will shower from year to year, upon the 
flock committed to them, selecter influences of 



60 



knowledge ripened and elevated, of piety enriched, 
of gentleness and zeal conjoined in love. 

In a word, in the whole history and progress of a 
church whose every member is equally and at 
all times responsible for its character and success, 
efficiency and purity may properly be antici- 
pated. Before the principle of individual obli- 
gation has worked out its results, there will 
be danger doubtless of inactivity on the one 
hand, and of confusion on the other. When- 
ever the principle, as it sometimes will be, has 
been practically forgotte*n, and held in abeyance, 
there will be danger again, of discord and jea- 
lousy. But just so long, and just so far, as the 
principle is adhered to, and is systematically and 
thoroughly developed in the management of the 
church, that the members of Christ's household are 
equal in their rights, and that the appointment of one 
to office makes him a voluntary servant among his 
brethren, and not in any sense a chief and ruler, 
so long it will be in the highest sense established 
and prosperous. If error shall creep in, the truth 
will overcome it. If causes of difference shall arise, 
the moral influences tending to repress undue ex- 
citement, or to prevent its recurrence, will act, 
more silently, but far more surely, than any regi- 
men from without. The entire organism will be 
self-guarded and self-adjusting, and all its members 
being united in love, in a knowledge that commu- 
nicates itself from one unto the other, and a co- 
operation in effort which is progressively earnest, 
their attachments to one another must multiply and 



61 



augment, and their influences extend from year to 
year. 

Such is the clear teaching of analysis — assum- 
ing only that the church is, in its mass at least, a 
body of faithful believers, and not a congregation, 
for selfish ends, of unregenerate men. And if it 
be the latter, the sooner it explodes into frag- 
ments, the better and the happier for all who are 
involved; and that is the more desirable sys- 
tem which shall ensure and hasten its absolute 
destruction. 

Pausing, then, at this point, as the goal of our 
analysis, let us review the conclusions to which 
we have been brought. It is the first and funda- 
mental principle of the Congregational system : 
That any society of Christians constitutes a church, 
which holds substantially the doctrines of grace, 
and statedly meets for Christian worship. And it 
is the tendency of this principle, while it guards 
against licentiousness of belief or practice, to make 
its recipient more charitable toward those from 
whom he differs, and more ready to cooperate 
with them in all good works ; it renders the unity 
of the visible Church a fact and not a fancy ; it en- 
courages an increased spirituality of heart and life ; 
and by allowing the material structure of the 
church to be flexile and pliant, and to adjust itself 
easily to the habits of a community, it tends to 
bring the truth into immediate contact with the 
popular mind. 

It is another, and a more strictly denominational 
principle in this system of order: That every local 



62 



assembly of Christians, is self-constituted and self- 
complete, and rightfully independent of the control 
of others. And the effect of this must be, to facili- 
tate the diffusion of church-institutions; to en- 
courage harmony among churches, and diminish 
the hazard of ecclesiastical collisions ; to check the 
spread of controversy in the Church ; to stimulate 
each society of believers to new activity ; to di- 
minish the liability to extensive inroads of heresy ; 
and to make progress more easy in the statement 
of the truth, and the analysis of its relations. 

It is still another distinctive principle of this sys- 
tem : That all the members of a church are equal 
with each other in privilege and in obligation. 
And the influence of this must be, in connexion 
with minor and incidental advantages, to train be- 
lievers to a piety more active, intelligent, and sym- 
metrical, and thus most permanently to benefit 
the church, and add to its efficiency. 

And now briefly, and in a word, what says the 
history of the system, in its actual development, to 
these inferences of analysis ? Does this confirm 
the lessons thus far deduced ? or does it re- 
quire us to review our processes, and under the 
severer light of ascertained facts, to correct our 
conclusions ? 

The extent to which I have already trespassed 
upon your patience, will compel me to com- 
press into an Illustration, what I had intended as 
an Argument. But fortunately we need to sum- 
mon but a single witness, whose competence and 






63 



integrity all will concede. Passing by the primi- 
tive and apostolic churches, the essential Congre- 
gationalism of whose organization and government 
it seems impossible to doubt; passing by, even, 
those churches of the Waldensian and Piedmontese 
valleys, which so illustrate the darkness of the 
mediaeval night, with the radiance of their piety, 
and the serene and stellar light of their unwaver- 
ing faith — let us come at once to that history 
with which all are familiar ; to the history of the 
churches first planted in New England, and by 
which the principles we have considered, have 
been substantially embodied, and uniformly main- 
tained. What shall we say, of the largeness of 
their charity ? of their readiness to cooperate with 
others in all good works ? of their aversion to for- 
malism, and their love for the truth, and their es- 
sential spirituality ? What, of their general har- 
mony and union with each other ? of the purity of 
the faith that has been transmitted through them ? 
of the impulses they have given to theological in- 
vestigation, and the increments they have made to 
theological knowledge ? What, of the character 
of the piety that has been trained under their in- 
fluence ? of the purity of the discipline in them 
administered ? of their vigorous activity in every 
enterprise of philanthropy ? While w e would not 
be blind to the defects of these churches, to their 
many short-comings, to their frequent errors ; 
while we would not overlook, on the other hand, 
the numerous excellences of other communions, 
and especially of those which have approached 



4 



our own most nearly in the principles of their 
polity — is it extravagant to affirm that in all the 
regards which have been indicated above, the 
churches of New England will bear comparison 
with any that the world has seen ? For the 
energy of thought that in them has been display- 
ed ; for the noble conceptions of truth that have 
been there elicited, and thence sent forth ; for the 
sweetness and beauty of the Christian spirit, 
diffused through the community ; for the liberality 
of the charities that have girdled the earth with 
their beneficent influence ; for the fervor and 
heroism of piety that have made exile and martyr- 
dom in the service of Christ most easy to be 
borne. In these respects search the Earth, search 
History, for their superiors, and where will you 
find them ? 

Error, indeed, and error which in its naked 
form must certainly be deemed pernicious and de- 
structive, came in upon them at one time with 
power. Being grounded in part, in a deceptive 
philosophy; being fostered by a mistaken pride 
of liberality and freedom; being invited, perhaps, 
in some quarters, by a not unnatural reaction from 
a theology that loved to err on the side of austeri- 
ty ; being favored by many tendencies of the age, 
and many circumstances of the country — especial- 
ly by that most ill-advised union of the Church 
with the State, which made each tax-payer in the 
town a voter in the parish, and by that miserable 
philosophy, and more miserable theology, which 
admitted men to the church in order by its sacra- 



65 



ments to convert them; being fortified and ad- 
vanced, when once introduced, by the powerful 
influences of wealth, and intellectual accomplish- 
ments, and social elevation; being speedily exalted 
to the highest seats in the University, in the 
Legislature, at the Bar, and upon the Bench; 
being recommended to general acceptance, by 
the singular enthusiasm and eloquence of its 
champions, and not less by the grace of their 
manners, and the purity of their life ; and, finally, 
being fitted, in itself, to enlist in its behalf not the 
pride of intellect alone, and the aversion of the 
heart to the truths that are humbling, but also 
many aspirations for the Beautiful, and many de- 
sires for human advancement — this error, which 
had at first been imperceptible, and which but 
gradually displayed its full proportions, seemed 
destined to master the Church, and over-sweep the 
land. 

But that which to the superficial observer ap- 
peared the weakness of Puritanism, was really its 
strength. What is sometimes, even to this day, 
alleged as its disgrace, should never be mentioned 
except to its honor. Such was the constitution of 
its ecclesiastical system, so great and so inherent 
was its vitality, so necessarily recuperative and 
unsubduable its energies — that the error, so attrac- 
tive and powerful, was arrested in its advance. It 
could get itself organized into no permanent form. 
It could not penetrate a Hierarchy, and render it- 
self impregnable therein, as did the kindred 
heresy of justification by works, when it stole by 
9 



66 



degrees into the Romish communion. It could not 
even call to its aid the power of Presbyteries and 
Synods, and diffuse itself throughout their bounds, 
and fortify itself in their defences, as did the same 
error when it entered the Presbyterian churches 
of Geneva, and of England. The only external 
aid which it could summon to its assistance, was 
found in the social influences, of wealth and rank, 
which for the time it drew about it ; and when 
these had passed, as pass they must and that 
speedily, it was compelled to live, if at all, by its 
intrinsic vitality. It was forced to maintain its 
claims in the grapple with the truth ; to show its 
response to the longings of the heart, and the de- 
mands of the conscience ; to bring the consenta- 
neous teachings of the Past, to illustrate its 
correctness; to demonstrate its coincidence with 
the text of the Scriptures. And from that point, 
its progress has been downward. The influences 
for good which it has quickened or originated, 
will long survive. It has given an impulse to 
many departments of philanthropic effort. It has 
hastened the downfall of obsolete theological 
phrases, the representatives of no recognized facts, 
and, by the revival of neglected truths, has made 
the orthodoxy of New England more symmetrical 
and powerful. But as a distinct dogmatic system, 
its influence, for years, has certainly been waning ; 
and though the end is not yet, and though it is 
still strong in its hold upon that ancient metropolis 
from which gush forth so many streams of intel- 
lectual life, it requires no prophet to foretell that 



67 



ere long what is good in the system will have 
been assimilated again to the faith from which it 
proceeded, or will have embodied itself in other 
forms, and that what is thoroughly erroneous and 
heretical therein will have issued in infidelity. 

I repeat it, therefore, that in its endurance of 
this outburst of error, and its successful resistance 
thereto, is shown the peculiar strength of the 
Congregational polity ; is shown its marvellous 
and elastic energy ; an energy not to be wearied 
out, or overcome ; an energy that ensures at last 
the triumph of the truth. From no point, either 
of present observation, or of past experience, or of 
that philosophical analysis of its principles which 
should precede all scrutiny of facts — from no 
point, can we with candor and largeness of view 
survey this system, and not discover its excellence 
and nobleness. It is noble in itself. It is 
beneficent in its influences. And it has made 
New England, so bleak, and rocky, and barren 
as she is, the Light of the nations, and the Glory of 
all lands. 

Are we not right, then, to prize this system, 
and labor for its extension ! 

I have not spoken at all, you will observe, of the 
direct influences which it is fitted to exert upon 
society and the State. These are too numerous, 
and too important, to be treated at present ; though 
it is well for us to remember, not only that what- 
ever benefits the Church must benefit also the State 
in which the church is so influential a power, but 



68 



also that freeness in church-institutions tends natu- 
rally to cherish the same freeness in civil; that 
what accustoms all men to be equal in the Church, 
will sooner or later make them equal in the State ; 
and that, as matter of fact, the author of the De- 
claration of Independence drew his first notions of 
practical democracy from an ecclesiastical society, 
and New England, confessedly, through all her his- 
tory, has owed to the liberality and simplicity of her 
church institutions, much of that good government 
in the State for which she has been proverbial 
throughout the earth, and under which order and 
liberty have been so admirably blended. 

I have not spoken either, of the peculiar adapta- 
tion of this system to our Society, and our Times ; 
of its reliance upon the intelligence that is so ra- 
pidly increasing, and its essential harmony with 
that free spirit which is abroad in the earth, and 
which manifests itself most freely and steadily 
throughout our land. 

I have not spoken of the associations with whose 
wealth it is rich, with whose dignity it is venera- 
ble ; of the fragrant and precious memories that 
cluster about it ; of the meekness and nobleness of 
Robinson, and the Puritans; of the fervent faith 
and tireless enthusiasm of Eliot ; and the incompa- 
rable majesty and power of the elder Edwards. 

I have not spoken even, I have purposely and of 
design omitted to speak, of its peculiar and eminent 
harmony, not only with the precepts and principles 
of the Scriptures, but with their whole spirit and 
genius ; with the freeness of their instructions ; and 



69 



with the essential spirituality, and repugnance to all 
elaborate ecclesiastical machinery, which hovers 
around and fills them like an etherial life. 

Leaving all these broad and attractive topics, and 
looking for the time at this alone, I have aimed to 
unfold, though most imperfectly, the influence of 
its principles on the life of the Church. And now, 
I say again, looking at this alone, are we not right 
to prize the system, and seek for its extension? 

Enlarged intelligence, increased activity and spi- 
rituality in individual Christians, augmented effici- 
ency and prayerfulness in the Church, what other 
gains are comparable to these ? Other acquisitions 
may be but transient in their continuance ; but these 
shall be inwrought in the eternal system. Other 
benefits may send their influence but for a little 
time, through limited circles ; but these shall cir- 
culate more widely and more pervasively from age 
to age. Whatever gains these, hastens the down- 
fal of error throughout the earth, and speeds the 
day, seen from afar by the enraptured Seer, when 
all shall sing the praise of God ! Fitted then as our 
system, in its appropriate action, demonstrably 
is to make these gains and to secure them, why 
should we not prize it, and long for its advance- 
ment ? Why should we hesitate to acknowledge 
that we love it, and pray for its extension ? And 
why should we ever be branded as intruders, be- 
cause throughout our Land, which in its every state 
and section has drawn so largely upon the Puritan 
blood, because especially upon this soil, where 
almost every second family claims birth-right in 



70 



New England, we desire to see planted the same 
institutions of ecclesiastical order which have bless- 
ed and builded-up the Puritan commonwealths, 
and placed the Puritan churches beside the apos- 
tolic ! Truly, my friends, with our conviction of 
the excellence of these principles, if we omit to 
hold, to prize, to press them upon others, then we are 
recreant to our duty. Commended as they are, by 
the charity they inculcate, and the efficiency they 
produce, by the peace which they encourage, and 
the piety which they foster, by the strength they 
will develope in time of trial, and not less by the 
simplicity of their machinery and the silence of 
their movements in times of repose — when we for- 
get to cherish and maintain them, let our right 
hands forget their cunning ! 

And while we thus prize these principles and 
seek for their extension, let us also administer and 
apply them, among ourselves, in their simplicity and 
fulness. Thus only shall we derive from them all 
their advantages. Thus only shall we effectually 
commend them to general acceptance. Let us 
cherish the spirit which they inculcate, of love for 
all who are our Lord's, however they may differ 
from us in outward forms. Let us gladly coope- 
rate with such for the extension of the kingdom of 
our common Redeemer, and make it seen, by the 
largeness of our gifts, and the energy of our efforts, 
that we value the truth as more and better than all 
things else. In the domestic arrangements of our 
churches, let us develope systematically the princi- 
ples which we hold. Let each local society be 



71 



made to stand by itself, erect and independent, to 
feel its responsibility, to exercise its rights. In the 
internal management of the churches, let all the 
members be called upon to act ; and let no one be 
allowed, through negligence or timidity, to dele- 
gate to others his personal duty. Remembering 
that a thorough and recognized Presbyterianism, 
with its offices arranged, its duties denned, and 
its responsibilities attached, is more reliable and 
less dangerous than a virtual Presbyterianism un- 
der the Congregational title, let it be our chief 
care to have our churches in fact, just what they 
are in name. Let us resist strenuously all 
tendencies to looseness of doctrine, or to positive 
error, and yet let us also remember the parting 
words of Robinson to our fathers, and open our 
minds to every truth which God shall show us. 
Above all, let us strive, each one of us, from day 
to day, as members and ministers of Christ, to 
live a noble and Christian life, a life that shall be 
radiant with truth, instinct with love, and crown- 
ed with labors ; a life from which shall flow, 
through all our circles, a blessed influence. 

Thus shall we make our churches, the churches 
"of the Pilgrims;" no sickly and dwarfish off- 
shoots, no mechanical imitations, but genuine re- 
productions, upon this unfamiliar soil, of those 
compact and hardy growths unfolded by our 
fathers from the germs of the Gospel ; protected 
by God's providence, and watered by His Spirit, 
filled with a warm and generous life, and loaded 
with fruit from year to year. To spread these, is 



72 



our work. And we may do it. For it is no more 
certain that looking in upon the elements of our 
system, or out upon its history, we may discover 
its worth, than it is that looking onward into the 
Future, and abroad upon the Earth — observing the 
sympathy of this system with the spirit of the 
coming Ages, and remembering its harmony with 
the teachings of the Scripture — we may discern 
afar its universal diffusion. Its principles are 
borne abroad over our country on every breeze 
that blows. They have sifted already into every 
communion ; and it begins to be the boast of each 
that these are in it so extensively. Wherever 
they exist, they are working continually toward 
practical development. When that is gained, they 
will demand development and acknowledgment 
in an organized form. They are springing and 
spreading in even the Romish church ; and banded 
as is that mighty organism with rings of steel, and 
almost impregnable to outward assault, there is, 
in this land, a germ implanted within it and still 
unfolding, whose swelling roots shall snap its 
bands, and split and rend its oaken strength. 
Just as the church is purified, its freedom will 
be advanced, and its machinery be simplified. 
Just so, then, will these principles prevail and flour- 
ish ; and the day of the Millennial glory, shall be 
the era of their completed triumph ! For that then 
let us work ! For that then let us pray ! And may 
God give us grace, unto the glory of His Name. 



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